1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope apparatus.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-330377, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
Known microscope apparatuses in the related art include a coarse adjustment knob for changing the relative position between a specimen and an objective lens in the optical axis direction to quickly and roughly move the focal position of the objective lens relative to the specimen and a fine adjustment knob for precisely moving the focal position of the objective lens relative to the specimen (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-4165).
In such a known microscope apparatus, the operator performs rough focusing of the objective lens with respect to the specimen using the coarse adjustment knob followed by precise focusing using the fine adjustment knob.
However, since the focal position is adjusted quickly when using the adjustment knob, the operator must constantly check the relative positional relationship between the specimen and the objective lens while operating the coarse adjustment knob. In particular, when the specimen is easily damaged, care must be taken not to contact the objective lens with the specimen, thus damaging it. Also, when performing examination of a specimen immersed in liquid without using a liquid-immersion objective lens, care must be taken not to contact the objective lens with the liquid. Furthermore, in the case of a microscope used for examining the interior of a specimen, such as a confocal microscope, although the objective lens may make contact with the specimen, care must be taken not to apply excessive pressure.
Therefore, in order to avoid these problems, when the specimen and the objective lens are placed relatively close together, position adjustment using the coarse adjustment knob is stopped when the relative positions of the specimen and the objective lens are sufficiently separated, and from that point, they can be carefully brought closer together by using the fine adjustment knob. In such a case, however, the time required to set the focal position is rather long, resulting in the drawback that the examination time is also increased.
Furthermore, even if adjustment is carried out with the coarse adjustment knob until the relative positions of the specimen and the objective lens are sufficiently close together, if the positional relationship between the specimen and the objective lens is not checked while adjusting the position using the fine focus adjustment knob, the problem of contact between the specimen and the objective lens or excessive pressure being applied still occurs.
In particular, in the case of a fluorescence microscope which is operated by remote control in a dark room or a black box, to check the relative positional relationship between the specimen and the objective lens, a light must be turned on or the black box must be opened during examination. Another problem, therefore, is that the checking procedure becomes extremely troublesome and examination cannot be carried out efficiently.